In a typical computer network, the network peers send and receive data packets. Each packet of data follows a particular path from source peer to the destination peer. A fault in a segment or failure of path will disturb the data traffic. A segment generally consists of plurality of nodes linearly connected with links. A typical example of a segment would be a link connecting two nodes or an entire end-to-end service path.
Presently, local segment based protection switching is done when the segment is under fault connection. To monitor the connectivity fault of end-to-end service there are a standard based mechanism: IEEE 802.1ag (CFM OAM), IEE802.3ah (EFM OAM), ITU-T Y.1731 (ETHOAM), ITU-T G.8031 (ELPS) and ITU-T G.8032 (ERPS). Essentially it involves exchanging of periodic frames between end nodes of service or segment. Despite there being many standards for connectivity monitoring, there are cases where a service could be working but segment could be reported to be in fault due to forwarding database error or mis-configuration within a segment. There are also cases where forwarding database of service is faulty or a service is misconfigured within the segment even while the segment is in order. The above mentioned problem may be overcome by a method using a unicast CCM (periodic integrity check message), where unicast CCM was provisioned between the end-points of an Infrastructure Segment to monitor the connectivity of the same. The method using a unicast CCM do not solve the issues of reduced bandwidth utilization within the infrastructure segment protection domain per service, coordination needed between inner infrastructure segment protection domain and outer infrastructure segment protection domain, and more numbers of frame processing per service within nested infrastructure segment protection domain.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a method and system for segment protection domain in an Ethernet communication network to overcome the above restrictions and limitations.
Before describing the novel solution in detail, it would be important to first understand the following terminologies.
Segment Protection Domain—It basically consists of multiple infrastructure segments between the end points such that if one infrastructure segment fails then other infrastructure segment will protect the traffic flowing over failed infrastructure segment.
Infrastructure Segment—It is the linear chain of nodes and links. Two or more infrastructure segment form one infrastructure segment protection domain or segment protection domain